The Vicuña Wears the Finest Wool
By Awake! correspondent in Bolivia
WHAT makes the wool of the vicuña so special? And why is its wool so rare?
You may have seen a similar animal, the llama—that snooty-looking, slow-moving beast of burden so common in zoos. Its wool is coarse. You may also have seen garments made from the soft fleece of the alpaca, another domestic animal of the Andes kept for its wool. But have you ever seen a vicuña?
The vicuña is different. It is wild! Touch its coat if you can. It is the finest wool on earth, with hairs less than half the diameter of the finest sheep’s wool.
The vicuña needs that insulating coat, since it lives at an elevation of from 12,000 to 18,000 feet [3,700 to 5,500 m] on the slopes of the Andes Mountains. There, near the snow line, days are delightfully sunny, but at nightfall the temperature suddenly drops to many degrees below freezing. Also, many areas on this western side of the Andes are dry deserts. How do vicuñas survive in such a place?
Besides having a special coat, the vicuña has blood that is so loaded with red cells that even at the high altitudes where it lives, the animal can run at 30 miles an hour [50 km/hr] for some distance without tiring. And like camels they can survive under extremely dry conditions. In fact, vicuñas, llamas, alpacas, and guanacos are often called cameloids because they are like camels. But our Creator has given vicuñas another advantage to help them survive.
Whereas llamas and alpacas give birth at any time of the year, vicuñas give birth in March and April. This is at the end of the rainy season, when there is more food. In addition, the birth is usually in the morning, to give the little one time to dry out before it encounters its first freezing night. The mother separates from the rest of the herd of about 20 vicuñas and, after less than half an hour’s labor, gives birth to a creature weighing less than 14 pounds [6 kg]. She does nothing to help it, not even licking it. If it rains, the cold will weaken the newborn and make it easy prey for the world’s largest flying bird, the Andean condor. But soon the newborn is on its feet, and within 30 minutes it is able to outrun a man.
However, it is sad that greedy poachers have nearly exterminated the vicuña, often killing the animals with machine guns. In some years up to 50,000 pounds [23,000 kg] of wool has been exported, nearly all from illegally slaughtered animals. In an effort to save the creature from extinction, some nations have banned the import of vicuña wool and skins.
Why Is the Wool So Warm?
All wool is warm because, unlike silk, cotton, or polyester, there are tiny scales on the hollow, air-filled fibers that cause them to interlock and trap insulating air. Also, wool has a natural crimp, or wave, that remains even after processing and washing. This means that less wool touches the skin than is the case with other fibers. In addition, wool continues to absorb moisture—up to 30 percent of its weight—without feeling damp to the touch.
Significantly, silky vicuña wool is finer than any other wool. And, usually, the finer the wool, the finer the quality. Fine wool means finer yarn and finer cloth—cloth that feels soft, light, and warm. A scarf made of vicuña is so fine that it can be drawn through a wedding ring. Because the fine fibers are very sensitive to chemical treatment, vicuña wool is normally used in its natural golden color.
The vicuña fleece has been appreciated since the time of the Incas, before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century. Millions of vicuñas thrived in the Andes in those days. Every few years the Incas would organize thousands of people to surround entire mountains and trap the herds of vicuñas so that they could be sheared. Vicuña cloth was a respected mark of rank; only the highest-ranking ones in the kingdom could use it. Today, it is almost impossible to obtain legally.
Why So Rare?
Whereas an alpaca can provide 15 pounds [7 kg] of wool every two years when it is sheared, a vicuña provides only one pound [0.5 kg]. Yet, is it possible to produce sufficient quantities of wool for commercial use from domesticated vicuñas?
“Personally, I think it’s a Utopian dream,” explained a warden at a research station on the Bolivian altiplano. “You see, llamas and alpacas are domestic animals, but the vicuñas are wild. They leap our fences, and we have to spend many hours catching them again. They fought so furiously when we tried to dip them that two died.” Evidently, some animals were created to be domesticated and others not. Regarding this, the Bible says that God created “domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind.” (Genesis 1:24) But what about crossing vicuñas with domestic alpacas?
This has been tried, but the offspring become sterile after just a few generations. “The only hope of legally produced vicuña cloth,” the above-quoted warden said, “lies in protecting the wild animals until their numbers grow sufficiently so that they can be herded into nets. Then they can be sheared and released, as in Inca times. Some countries hope to achieve this soon.”
Surely, to care better for earth’s animal life is a worthy goal. This was done in past generations, and it will certainly be done in the future under the rule of God’s righteous government.—Isaiah 9:6; 11:6-9.